Tuesday 17 April

Today's news from the web

The Thames cable car could be used to ferry Olympic athletes to events in the O2 arena during the Games. Engineers are battling to finish the project in time for the opening ceremony on July 27 after a series of delays left transport bosses concerned that it would not be opened until well after the Games. Senior sources told the Standard that they were “extremely hopeful” that the cable car could be used in “some capacity” during the Olympics. It will link the O2 arena in Greenwich with the Excel exhibition centre at the Royal Docks....

Further problems have been found at Halls Lock, 20w, on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Frenches, Greenfield. ... Update 17th April: British Waterways says that contractors are having severe difficulty in removing the water from the lock floor due to the amount of leakage through the lock and the recent wet weather. Works to repair the lock floor cannot be stared until the lock is dewatered. BW warns that the work could take from 14 days up to a month to complete....

Sunday 15 April

Today's news from the web

The Foxton Canal Museum has been re-opened following a renovation project. The museum at the popular tourist spot has been transformed during the last two years, with improved access and new space created to house temporary exhibitions....

Saturday 14 April

Today's news from the web

Birmingham canal users have backed a decision to restrict use of some of the network because of drought concerns. The move came as it emerged that Severn Trent is in talks to sell water to parched eastern parts of the country. British Waterways, which runs the network, has announced that some canals will only open at restricted times, while others will be closed. Ivor Caplan, secretary of The Birmingham Canal Navigations Society said: “We support the action taken by British Waterways. By imposing these restrictions early in the cruising season it is to be hoped that the majority of the waterways system can be kept open for canal travellers throughout the year." ...

Friday 13 April

Today's news from the web

Bbc Video: Preparations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee river pageant in London this summer are continuing apace. Gilded decorations are being prepared for the Spirit of Chartwell, a converted barge upon which the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will travel up the Thames during the showpiece celebration. Royal barge production designer Joseph Bennett takes the BBC behind-the-scenes to meet the team tasked with decoration....

Thursday 12 April

Today's news from the web

A nine-year-old boy was left with serious leg injuries after he fell from a narrowboat in Devizes and got tangled up in the propeller. It is understood he suffered the injuries after his family reversed the boat to try to rescue him. It happened at midday on Easter Monday on the Kennet and Avon Canal near Laywood Bridge, a secluded spot between Devizes Marina and the Bridge Inn at Horton....

A key canal route has been shut after a barge was left stranded and flooded in a lock. The boat is thought to have become lodged on a canal gate after a mattress tangled in its rudder and caught on the lock on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in Ashton. Its owners were safely rescued from the wrecked boat but it has caused a backlog of other barges waiting to get through. ...

London’s lost rivers: the hidden history of the city’s buried waterways Tom Bolton reveals the surprising stories behind the little-known rivers that still surge beneath the streets of London....

Tuesday 10 April

Hosing down boats still permissible in drought 'for health & safety reasons'wash down boats during drought

The British Marine Federation (BMF) says that after discussions with Water UK - the body representing water companies throughout the UK - it has been determined that boaters can use hosepipes to wash down boats 'for health and safety reasons'.

Seven companies – Anglian Water, South East Water, Southern Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Thames Water, Veolia Central and Veolia South East – have now announced hosepipe bans, under the Water Use (Temporary Bans) Order 2010.

'Health and safety' in this context includes removing or minimising any risk to human or animal health or safety, as well as preventing or controlling the spread of causative agents of disease.

"The government recognises the importance of washing down boats to minimise the spread of invasive non native species", said a BMF spokesman.

Today's news from the web

Bw has announced a volunteer-led oral history project about the Lune Aqueduct and Lancaster Canal. The project aims to discover and record the memories of people who have worked and lived alongside the canal. The project hopes to interview people who have lived beside the canal, worked on or beside the canal, have used the canal for leisure, or have any information about the working life of the canal. They are looking for anyone who has any types of memories of the canal or who have been told stories about it by their parents and grand parents. The project will be launched in Lancaster Maritime Museum with a Memories Day on Saturday 5th May, 11:30am – 4pm. Inheritage, the company running the project for BW, is looking for people to volunteer to conduct oral history interviews, transcribe interviews, scan old photographs, help with events, etc. They will provide recording equipment and run a training day in oral history. Dr Bill Bevan of Inheritage says that the ability to listen and ask questions is more important than qualifications in heritage, history or the waterways. For more enquiries contact him at bill@inheritage.co.uk or call 0114 2345411....

Building work is due to begin on a new pedestrian bridge over the Basingstoke Canal in Surrey. The existing bridge in Woking town centre and a section of the canal towpath will be closed from 23 April to allow construction to start. The new bridge is to be called Bedser Bridge in recognition of Surrey and England cricketing heroes Eric and Sir Alec Bedser from Horsell, in Woking....

Many historic narrow boats helped bring the town’s canals to life over the Easter weekend. More than 40 boats belonging to members of the Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club (HNBOC) were moored in Vines Park and Droitwich Marina as part of the group’s annual gathering....

Olympic rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave has pulled out of the annual Devizes to Westminster canoe race due to "tiredness". A race spokesman said the Olympian and his partner Roger Hatfield had "retired" from the race at 02:20 BST. The pair had travelled about 87 miles (140km) along the 125-mile (200km) route, reaching Old Windsor Lock in Berkshire. Sir Steve was one of four Olympians taking part in the race, including Ben Hunt-Davis, Sarah Winckless and Kate MacKenzie, all of whom failed to finish. The event was won by Richard Hendron and James King for the third year in a row. ...

Dog walkers are calling for action to stop cyclists speeding on a popular canal pathway. Pet owners say riders can hit speeds of 15-20mph on the path along the Forth and Clyde Canal between Townhead and the Stables. Walkers say the problem means it is not safe for them to use the path in the evenings. They are now asking British Waterways to erect signs warning cyclists to slow down on the route....

There may be restrictions on canal travel, but Foxton Locks is open for business as usual, say those who make their living from the popular tourist site. Water shortages have seen movement on sections of the locks restricted to between the hours of 10am and 4pm since March 19. The same restrictions were put in place on a section of the Grand Union Canal between Kibworth and Aylestone from Monday this week, with heavier restrictions ahead. From April 13 that stretch of the canal - known as the lower Leicester line - will be closed to navigation, with the locks padlocked....

Britain’s Olympic chief fears the London Games could be marred by a protest like the one that disrupted the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the River Thames. “It just takes, and is likely to be, one idiot,” British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan said Sunday. “It’s not likely to be a well-orchestrated campaign through Twitter or websites. It is likely to be someone similar to the idiot yesterday who causes major disruption. Trenton Oldfield jumped into the water and appeared to deliberately cross the path of the rowers halfway through the competition Saturday in a protest against 'elitism and privilege'. He was arrested and later charged with a public order offence....

London's impressive new £60million cable car system is set to give tourists panoramic views over the River Thames. The Emirates-sponsored transport will be the first urban cable car system of its kind in the UK and will whizz people across the river between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks in just five minutes. ...

Construction firm Balfour Beatty has won a £13.5 million contract to carry out the civil engineering and canal work on the Helix project, the £43m scheme to redevelop land between Falkirk and Grangemouth. The 450-hectare site near chemicals giant Ineos’ Grangemouth refinery will be turned into parkland and visitor attractions, along with a connection linking the Forth & Clyde canal, the Firth of Forth and the River Carron....

Holidaymakers planning canal trips across parts of the Midlands and the south face measures that will force them to avoid travel along many attractive routes. British Waterways has placed new “restrictions” on an estimated 245 miles of its national network, with many open at certain times, at weekends or are closed completely. Locks on some routes have been padlocked while certain areas have banned overnight mooring as the dry weather leave some reservoir holdings at “critical levels”. Areas affected by the measures include swathes of the Grand Union Canal, which links London to Birmingham, such as its "Leicester line” and Northampton and Aylesbury arms....